Chapter 256: The Final Peach-Plucking

A bright red Sword Light flashed by.

Peach-Plucking—

The Sword Art of the Fangfei Sword is the exact opposite of "Li Dai Tao Jiang" (Plums wither for peaches).

Li Dai Tao Jiang: You take the misfortune in my stead.

Peach-Plucking: I take the good fortune in your stead.

The two are opposites, yet they share the same origin; it is the most powerful Sword Art of the Fangfei Sword, and also the first one ever born. They are the two Sword Arts most closely connected to Sword Intent.

The so-called "Fangfei" (fragrant flowers) is merely the outward appearance of peaches and plums. The Sword Intent of the Fangfei Sword has nothing to do with falling flowers or the beauty of peaches and plums; it is about—substitution. The red of peaches and the white of pears, the chaotic dance of flowers, are merely distractions to the eye.

At the moment the Gaoyuan Marquis succeeded, Mai Shiyu arrived from behind and enveloped both Spirit Images within the range of her Sword Art with a single strike, logically completing the transfer.

In an instant, the light of Feng Zhilie's Spirit Image flared brilliantly. The girl's figure transitioned from illusory to real, and meridians condensed upon her skin, with radiance flowing through them unceasingly, forming a complete circulation of the heavenly cycle. It was exactly like the appearance of the Gaoyuan Marquis when he stabilized his Spirit Image.

Feng Zhilie naturally did not understand the principles within this technique and stood dazed, not knowing the subsequent steps. Fortunately, the Gaoyuan Marquis had already done everything he was supposed to do for her; that heavenly cycle was already formed and self-perpetuating. At a certain moment, the radiance flared and condensed into a film of light, wrapping around her entire body before gradually fading away.

In the end, only a little girl remained in the air, with a round face, charming and cute, her skin as delicate as white snow—a true little beauty, with none of the dreamlike, illusory feeling from before.

She lowered her head to look at her fingers, clenched her fist, and opened it again, playing with it twice as if it were a game, then suddenly looked up and laughed: "Awesome!"

Opposite her, the meridians on the Gaoyuan Marquis's body collapsed instantly, as if he had suddenly suffered a "dimensional strike." His person retreated abruptly from reality to illusion, and then, as if ink had been dripped onto rice paper, he instantly blurred, turning into a puddle of sludge, with his image only barely discernible.

The Gaoyuan Marquis was struck as if by lightning. Previously, when Jiang Shenyi had seized him, he had already prepared to die, but he had not expected it to happen in this way. It was one thing to dissipate naturally, but another nemesis who had caused him to reach this point remained unscathed and had even borrowed his light to stabilize a Spirit Image. Everything had been offered up by his own hand, and he could not help but be shocked and angry, filled with indignation, and he shouted: "What kind of tricks are you playing? You actually stole the divine art of our Great Wei! Despicable! Shameless!"

Mai Shiyu landed and sheathed her sword, sneering: "Nothing is more shameless than the Gui bandits! For your own selfish ends, you used a Demon Cave as a tool, destroyed a city, and implicated the innocent—yet you dare call others shameless?"

The Gaoyuan Marquis caught his breath and said: "I talk to you about martial virtue, who talks to you about righteousness? If we speak of righteousness, those who achieve great things do not fuss over trifles. How despicable were you when your puppet dynasty usurped the throne? Once we win the world, we will naturally cherish the common people, a hundred times better than your puppet dynasty. You keep the common people on your lips as if your dog Imperial Court hasn't caused many deaths? It is merely that I have lost to you..." As he spoke, his figure grew increasingly faint.

At this moment, Feng Zhilie suddenly shouted: "Why did you want to occupy Xun City?"

Mai Shiyu was startled, then glared at the Gaoyuan Marquis. The Gaoyuan Marquis smiled coldly, said nothing, and gradually dissipated.

Before dissipating, he seemed to raise his hand and draw it across his neck, making a killing gesture. He had always been refined and polite, even debating logic with his enemies until the end; this throat-slitting gesture was extremely fierce, yet it was his final action.

After doing so, his hand had not even had time to drop before he completely disappeared.

Boom—

The massive Heavenly Demon Bone collapsed, turning into rotten, withered bone.

After a while, Feng Zhilie shook her head and said: "Sigh, he died too early! We should have captured him to get to the bottom of the conspiracy."

Mai Shiyu understood what Feng Zhilie meant. This grand movement by the Gui bandits was tactically feasible, but strategically inexplicable.

To say it was feasible, the forces they mobilized and the means they arranged were relatively reasonable—from using the Demon Sect as bait to intercept the Town Guardian, to using the remnants of the Demon Sect to transfer the Demon Cave, using the Space Storm to shred the city walls, and from excavating an army of skeletons from the Ancient Battlefield to hiding the Hundred Spirit Cannon and the Heavenly Demon Bone as weapons of mass destruction, this series of means was orderly and linked, and they had put thought into the preparation.

If not for the fact that Mai Shiyu's Sword Intent was unique and unknown to anyone, which happened to plug the loophole in the city wall; if not for the fact that Tang Zhao and Jiang Shenyi, two fresh troops who could both use Rune Formulas and fight, had unexpectedly joined—one shooting the Beast Spirit Official to death with an arrow, the other blasting the Hundred Spirit Cannon with a cannon; if not for the fact that Zhang Rong had calculated the location of the Demon Cave...

If not for this series of coincidences, coincidences as if Xun City were protected by fate, then Xun City might truly have been lost. Even without counting the losses brought by the arrival of the Demon Cave, it might have been plunged into misery during this attack by the dead army and turned into a dead city...

However, then what?

What did the Gui bandits want to do by occupying Xun City?

If the Demon Sect had suddenly struck and occupied a city, there would be no need to delve into what they were doing. After all, the Demon Sect's brains are different from others; perhaps they just wanted to blood-sacrifice tens of thousands of people to please the Heavenly Demon, or use the city as a sacrifice to open a passage to an outer realm or something.

But the Gui bandits are not lunatics; they are remnants of the previous dynasty, a restoration organization, with plans and strategies. If it were said that the Gui bandits' hundreds of thousands of troops had already pacified Lingzhou and were heading toward Yunzhou, then lurking a few experts in Yunzhou to conspire to seize a city and planting a nail in Yunzhou to echo the reinforcements outside would be one thing, but that was not the case. The Gui bandits have been making small disturbances for so many years; their biggest move was causing trouble in Kungang a month ago, which turned Jianzhou upside down. Not to mention that they failed there, even if they had succeeded, why would you run thousands of miles away to occupy an enclave in Yunzhou instead of expanding your results in the southwest?

Even if they wanted to raise the banner of rebellion and wait for the four directions to respond, they shouldn't have chosen Yunzhou. Yunzhou, after years of governance by the Gaoyuan Marquis, already has deep foundations; how could it be a good place to raise an army? Moreover, there are Inspector Sword Hero experts patrolling the surroundings, as well as stationed troops. Even if they took Xun City, how could they hold it?

Unless they never intended to hold it.

Looking at the Gui bandits' deployment, using a mere few elite Spirit Officials to mobilize Spirit Servants to besiege the city and taking it by surprise attack, perhaps they only intended to do something within the city during the occupation. This matter might not require a long time, but it likely involved the entire city and had to be done with great fanfare; otherwise, they could have just had one or two Sword Guests sneak in and do it silently. It's not as if the Gui bandits don't have Sword Guests.

Although they had some speculations in their hearts at this moment, there were too many possibilities. There are too many things in this world that need to be guarded against; even if some conditions narrow the scope, it is still very difficult to guess what they were going to do just by guessing.

Therefore, Feng Zhilie said they should have captured them to ask about the situation.

In fact, how could Mai Shiyu not know that it was better to capture them alive? But the situation was as it was, and her first thought was to save the Town Guardian. Having such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, she naturally used the "Peach-Plucking" Sword Art.

Even now, having fully thought through the pros and cons, she did not regret it; having a comrade alive is more important than anything else.

Feng Zhilie also knew that he could only be grateful for Mai Shiyu's choice, so he said no more and asked: "There was another person sitting in the same carriage as him, whose status was also not low. Did he escape or..."

Mai Shiyu said: "Tang Zhao went to chase him. He went in that direction. Jiang, go and provide support."

Jiang Shenyi said: "Alright. I hope Junior Brother can leave him alive." He said this naturally because he trusted Tang Zhao's ability, but he still got up to provide support.

Before he could fly into the sky, Tang Zhao had already returned from the sky riding his vehicle, chugging along, his hands empty, bringing no prisoners.

Mai Shiyu was somewhat disappointed, but Tang Zhao was still fine and uninjured, so it seemed he hadn't suffered a loss. She asked: "How is it? Did you catch up?"

Tang Zhao said with some shame: "I can't say I caught up. That guy was actually able to initiate a teleportation and drilled all the way into that space vortex. I had to stick to the entrance and launch a wave of Sword Art; I don't know how it is over there. Anyway, the entrance has already closed, and I couldn't follow. I hope they are in trouble."

His "Juan Tu Chong Lai" (Return to Sweep the Land) toward the entrance, although he had exhausted his strength, could not compare in power to the Kun Sword itself. The only difference was that this time the distance was close enough to be called a "face-to-face attack."

Hopefully, it will have a satisfactory effect.

Mai Shiyu naturally could not have imagined that Tang Zhao had used the Kun Sword that had already sent that Highness scurrying in terror once. She comforted him: "So you mean he fled in a panic? That is also fine. The Gui bandits are so powerful, did you expect them to be wiped out entirely? Driving him away is also a great victory. The Gui bandits are dead or fled, the Demon Cave has been sealed by you, and we have guarded the city walls and protected the common people. Is this not a complete victory?"

Feng Zhilie said: "Let's go back and tidy up the city walls first, then talk about a complete victory."

Thereupon, Feng Zhilie and Mai Shiyu joined forces to return to the city, having guarded Xun City through its most vulnerable period, waiting for the Garrison Commander's office and reinforcements from other places to take over the city. Jiang Shenyi and Tang Zhao, who had high mobility and many means, remained to clean up the battlefield. This was both labor and a benefit, meaning the spoils of the battlefield were theirs to choose from.

The most valuable thing on the battlefield was naturally the Heavenly Demon Bone. Whether taken back to be made into Art Tools or Dharma Artifacts, or used for other research, it was a very precious material. This Heavenly Demon Bone was dealt with by Jiang Shenyi and had fallen into his hands, so Tang Zhao naturally would not divide Jiang Shenyi's spoils. At most, he would scrape off a bit of material.

Jiang Shenyi was going to pursue cultivation of his own body and advanced study of Rune Formulas, so this Heavenly Demon Bone, full of power, was of more value to him.

But Tang Zhao did not work in vain; he had already obtained the thing of final value in all of Xun City within the city.

After taking the Heavenly Demon Bone and scavenging some other items that were still of some value, Jiang Shenyi finally whipped up a whirlwind, swept all the trash into the sky, and stuffed it all into Tang Zhao's Time Jar at once; this completed the task of cleaning the battlefield.

But the two did not return to the city; instead, they looked at each other and retreated into the woods with a tacit understanding.

Arriving at a deserted place, Jiang Shenyi then asked: "How is it? Did you take down the Demon Cave?"

Tang Zhao said: "I did take it down, but there is a trouble inside, and I was just about to show it to Senior Brother." Having said that, he opened a jar, took out the Lotus Pond, and subsequently took out that Empty-Type Demon Cave.